Ski Challenge 08 - the world's biggest ski race with over 5 million players to date

Greentube is continuing to strengthen its leading international position in the field of virtual sport events financed by in-game advertising. At the beginning of December, the fourth season of the internationally successful "Ski Challenge" began with a number of new licence partners. Alongside the established partnership with ORF of Austria, no less than nine further media-partners from six countries joined in: Germany (Pro7, Sat1, Kabel1), Switzerland (SF), Norway (NRK), Slovenia (Zurnal), Croatia (24sata) and Canada (CBC).

As a result of the vast distribution and cumulative reach of the media partners, Ski Challenge 08 has recorded 3.3 million active players worldwide this year alone. When added to the figures since Ski Challenge began, a total of 5 million fans have now taken to the virtual pistes! Moreover, this winter a total of 14 billion ad impressions have been logged and 300 million races have been completed online. Around the globe, a line-up of significant advertising partners were once again on board, including household names such as Siemens, Canon, Samsung, Red Bull, Rauch, Tipp3, Swisscom, Uniqa, Raiffeisen, Audi, Snickers and Telenor.

"Our flagship– Ski Challenge– for the time being remains our most popular game around the world," stated Dr. Eberhard Dürrschmid, CEO of Greentube AG. "In addition to our growing number of high-quality free eSport games, we are proud of the unique draw of our tiles. In just three months, 3.3 million active gamers have played Ski Challenge 08– a figure that rises to more than 5 million different players since 2005. In contrast to other so-called mass game developers, we believe in meaningful and applicable numbers with regard to our games– we don't count identified players twice, nor do we rummage around for old lists of irrelevant e-mail addresses."

Ski Challenge is financed by dynamic in-game advertising, for which the technology was developed and is now continually refined by Greentube AG. Accordingly, a general update was undertaken this year. The huge success of the games lies in the unique cross-media concept and the convergence of TV content and 'user-generated content'. Greentube AG's online competence allows tens of thousands of games to be played simultaneously on the dedicated servers, therefore promoting the already powerful sense of direct competition within the game itself. This also allows players to import the runs of other gamers into their own game, against which they can race themselves.

About Greentube AG

Greentube AG, located in Vienna, Austria, is among the leading developers and providers of skill games for the Internet, mobile devices, and iTV. Moreover, the company has caused an international frenzy in recent years with its cross-media formats for the PC and TV.

Founded in 1997, floated in 2000, owned by a majority stake and managed by the original team, the 75-employee-strong company has since delivered a collection of well-know portals and gaming websites with skill gaming technology. Greentube is in the process of global expansion, focusing on the development of tailored game portals with the look and feel desired by the customer.

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